What invariably
kills any discussion of this sensible solution is another myth long perpetrated
by the financial elite -- that allowing the government to increase the money
supply would lead to hyperinflation.Rather
than exercising its sovereign right to create the liquidity the nation needs, the
government is told that it must borrow
from private lenders.And where does
their money come from?Ultimately from banks,
which create
it on their books just as the
government would have done.The
difference is that when bankers create it, it comes with a hefty fee attached
in the form of interest.

Meanwhile, the
Federal Reserve has been trying to
increase the money supply; and rather than producing hyperinflation, we continue
to suffer from deflation.Frantically pushing money at the banks has
not gotten money into the real economy.Rather than lending it to businesses and individuals, the larger banks have
been speculating with it or buying up smaller banks, land, farms, and productive
capacity, while the credit freeze continues on Main Street.Only
the government can reverse this vicious syndrome, by spending money directly on
projects that will create jobs, provide services, and stimulate
productivity.Increasing the money supply
is not inflationary if the money is used to increase goods and services.Inflation results when "demand" (money)
exceeds "supply" (goods and services).When supply and demand increase together, prices remain stable.

The notion that
the federal debt is too large to be repaid and that we are imposing that
monster burden on our grandchildren is another red herring.The federal debt has not been paid off since
the days of Andrew Jackson, and it does not need to be paid off.It is just rolled over from year to year,
providing the "full faith and credit" that alone backs the money supply of the
nation.The only real danger posed by a
growing federal debt is an exponentially growing interest burden; but so far,
that danger has not materialized either.Interest on the federal debt has actually gone down since 2006 -- from $406 billion to $383 billion -- because
interest rates have been lowered by the Fed to very low levels.

They can't be
lowered much further, however, so the interest burden will increase if the federal debt continues to grow.But there is a solution to that too.The government can just mandate that the Federal Reserve buy the government's debt,
and that the Fed not sell the bonds to private lenders.The Federal Reserve states on its website that it rebates
its profits to the government after deducting its costs, making the money
nearly interest-free.

All the
fear-mongering about the economy collapsing when the Chinese and other
investors stop buying our debt is yet another red herring.The Fed can buy the debt itself as it has
been stealthily doing.That is actually a
better alternative than selling the debt to foreigners, since it means we
really will owe the debt only to
ourselves, as Roosevelt was assured by his advisors when he agreed to the
deficit approach in the 1930s; and this debt-turned-into-dollars will be nearly
interest-free.

Better yet would
be to either nationalize or abolish the Fed and fund the government directly
with Greenbacks as President Lincoln did.What the Fed does the Treasury Department can do, for the cost of
administration.There would be no
shareholders or bondholders to siphon earnings, which could be recycled into
public accounts to fund national, state and local budgets at zero or near-zero
interest rates.Eliminating debt service
payments would allow state and federal income taxes to be slashed; and the
public managers of this money, rather than hiding behind a veil of secrecy,
would be opening their books for all to see.

A final red
herring is the threatened bankruptcy of Social Security.Social Security cannot actually go bankrupt,
because it is a pay-as-you-go system.Today's social security taxes pay today's recipients; and if necessary,
the tax can be raised. As Washington economist Dean Bakerwrote when
President Bush unleashed the campaign to privatize Social Security in 2005:

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"The
most recent projections show that the program, with no changes whatsoever, can
pay all benets through the year 2042. Even after 2042, Social Security would
always be able to pay a higher benet (adjusted for ination) than what current
retirees receive, although the payment would only be about 73 percent of
scheduled benets."

Today incomes
over $97,000 escape the tax, disproportionately imposing it on lower income
brackets.Projections over the next 75
years show that just removing that cap could eliminate the forecasted
deficit.When the Democratic
presidential candidates were debating in the fall of
2007, Barack Obama and Joe Biden were the only candidates willing to seriously
consider this reasonable alternative.President
Obama just needs to follow through with the solutions he espoused when
campaigning.

The Mass
Education Campaign We Really Need

What is really
going on behind the scenes may have been revealed by Prof. Carroll Quigley, Bill
Clinton's mentor at Georgetown University.An insider groomed by the international bankers, Dr. Quigley wrote in Tragedy and Hope in 1966:

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"[T]he powers of financial capitalism had
another far-reaching aim, nothing less than to create a world system of
financial control in private hands able to dominate the political system of
each country and the economy of the world as a whole. This system was to be
controlled in a feudalist fashion by the central banks of the world acting in
concert, by secret agreements arrived at in frequent private meetings and
conferences."

If that is
indeed the plan, it is virtually complete.Unless we wake up to what is going on and take action, the "powers of
financial capitalism" will have their way.Rather than taking to the streets, we need to take to the courts, bring
voter initiatives, and wake up our legislators to the urgent need to take the
power to create money back from the private banking elite that has hijacked it
from the American people.And that
includes waking up the President, who has been losing sleep over the wrong
threat.

Ellen Brown is an attorney, founder of the Public Banking Institute, and author of twelve books including the best-selling WEB OF DEBT. In THE PUBLIC BANK SOLUTION, her latest book, she explores successful public banking models historically and (more...)